


Consequences

by Vampyra142001



Series: A Lot To Learn [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Blood, Broken nose, Slightly worse than canon violence, Trans Danny Fenton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29893317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampyra142001/pseuds/Vampyra142001
Summary: Danny loses it and Vlad is asked to calm him down. Broken noses and feels happen.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Sam Manson (Referenced)
Series: A Lot To Learn [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2197905
Kudos: 18





	Consequences

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place a couple years after Collared, so Danny and Sam are 17-18 here and our two favorite half-ghosts have worked most of the shit out between them.
> 
> Betaed by Roki

Consequences

By Kelli Dalton

Vlad had been working on a new type of armor when Skulker had floated into his lab, looking rather worse for the wear. It had admittedly taken Vlad a moment to pull himself out of his project to notice, but Skulker’s suit was missing an arm, was melted in a couple spots, and had a set of sparking claw marks across the chest. What was odd was that Skulker was still in the suit in that condition. Normally, the diminutive ghost would have abandoned it for another robotic suit before it got to that level of damage.

“Plasmius, I- Well, I WANT to warn you to stay away, but I NEED to ask you to go to Amity Park,” said the hunter hesitantly.

Vlad frowned. Skulker always avoided asking for help and was never shy about demands when help was required.

“Why would I be needed in Amity Park?”

“He, the whelp, is on a rampage. Any ghost is his target and he’s being… Cruel.”

Vlad’s eyes widened and a million possibilities ran through his head about what could be wrong. Daniel wasn’t cruel or mean. Daniel didn’t do the sort of drawn out damage he could see on Skulker. With few exceptions, Daniel kicked your butt and called it a day.

“What happened? Is his family okay?”

“I couldn’t tell you. He isn’t giving anyone information, just attacking on sight. He seems upset.”

As far as Vlad was aware, there were a few emotions that were beyond Skulker’s understanding because the hunter hadn’t started out as a human, so ‘upset’ could mean many things. Likely it meant more than territorial aggression or jealousy, because those were within Skulker’s range of comprehension. Vlad flipped off his welder and changed into his ghostly form as he headed for the open portal.

“Is there anything else I should know?”

“He has claws now.”

“Ah, those aren’t new, he just doesn’t like using them.” You couldn’t really win a fight with claws, just cause pain.

*

Amity Park actually seemed peaceful when Plasmius got there. Perhaps too peaceful, but that could also just have been his nerves. Regularly, there were ambient ghosts wandering around harmlessly, but that normally could have just been explained away by the teens doing a thorough sweep of the town with that silly thermos. It was late enough that there weren’t any people about either. The whole town was quiet.

The half-ghost wandered through town, wondering where Daniel could be. The more he flew without encountering the teen, the more he began to wonder if Skulker had somehow been mistaken or if the situation had simply defused itself.

A panicked ectopus zipping by killed that hope.

He turned invisible before Daniel could spot him, the younger half-ghost in hot pursuit of the terrified weak ghost. Following along, Plasmius saw that Skulker was very much not wrong, Daniel was indeed being cruel in a way that was far outside the do-gooder’s usual behavior. The teen was zapping the ends of the ectopus’s tentacles, driving it to flee faster.

Plasmius split himself into three, sending the two clones ahead to try to cut off Daniel’s erratic flight path. One turned visible and was almost instantly destroyed by a huge ghost-ray.

"Go away, Vlad! I don't want to deal with your scheming right now!" Daniel snarled, looking around for the real one.

The second clone appeared a ways away with his hand up. "Easy there, Daniel, I'm not-" The clone was interrupted by the need to dodge and fight back.

Vlad watched carefully, trying to see if the boy was possessed or had some outside force causing the aberrant behaviors. It didn't appear so, but sometimes these things could be insidious that way.

"Daniel, I just want to talk!"

"I don't want to talk! I want you to go away!"

Well, Skulker hadn't been wrong, upset was the correct word. This seemed to be a rage fed by some variant of sadness, but it didn't seem quite desperate enough to be caused by a death. Besides, as far as either of them were aware, Daniel's default reaction to death was self-destructive depression while his human half remained. That left betrayal as the most likely root and that tended to narrow things down very quickly for a teenage boy.

The clone managed to make enough distance between the two of them to get Daniel on the defensive, which gave Plasmius the opening to grab the boy from behind. He crushed Daniel to his chest, not to cause harm, but to do his best to prevent it being done to himself.

"Dammit, let me go!” Daniel yelled.

If anyone were to ask, Vlad would have said that his broken nose happened because nobody had ever headbutted him before, not that he'd been completely thrown by the cursing. At least he hadn't been so thrown as to let go.

"Oh, cheese curds," he exclaimed around the harsh sting. He could feel the trickle of ectoplasm start to drip down his chin.

"Let me go!" Claws dug into his left hip, proving that his grip had loosened slightly with the headbutt and the teen had taken advantage of the lapse.

"Stop it, Danny! You're hurting me," hissed Plasmius.

The claws flexed deeper for a moment, then withdrew. He braced for pain as the teen stopped struggling to charge an attack. It wasn't a repulsion field that came from Daniel, but a ghostly wail, fired harmlessly into the clouds obscuring the stars.

Daniel sagged in his grip and changed back to human. By the time Plasmius had them both standing on solid ground, the boy was sobbing. He loosened his hold in increments just in case Daniel collapsed or tried to bolt. Neither occured. Instead the teen turned around and leaned against his chest.

Not sure what to do, Vlad resumed human form, his hands hovering awkwardly before he settled on a gentle hug. He did his best to keep his now red blood from dripping into Daniel's hair.

"What happened?"

It took a few minutes of false starts and sniffling, for the boy to calm down enough to speak coherently. 

"She broke up with me."

Ah, young love. Certainly not something he was going to make a mockery of considering where his own heart had dragged him, but it gave perfect context to everything.

"The goth girl?" he asked, wanting to be sure since that wasn't exactly something Vlad had paid much attention to in or out of battle with the teen.

"Yeah, Sam." Daniel had that hollow sort of tone that said he'd emptied his emotions out the window for the moment and was just numb. "She's going to college soon in another state for botany. She said she wanted to try other things and not have to break promises to me. I said it was okay, that I understood, and I do, but it hurts. It hurts so much more than I thought it would."

“I- I would be lying if I didn’t say that I understand to some degree. Things weren’t so amiable between your mother and I after my accident, but I know the heartbreak all the same.” Vlad squeezed Daniel a little, unsure of how else to convey what he was feeling. “You will do fine going forward so long as you don’t let the negative feelings fester. I wouldn’t want you to be my competition outside of being another half-ghost.”

The boy hummed a note of acknowledgement at the joke, but made no other indication of humor or sarcasm. Still, something was better than nothing. “From what you said, she’s not upset with you, so there is still solid ground there for a potential future together. But there’s also the chance that either of you may find someone else who clicks."

"I don't think you understand how hard it is for someone like me to date people," Daniel muttered into his chest.

"You're right, I don't entirely. I don't understand the gender stigma you have to deal with. However, I do understand the hidden identity part. And I have the issue of not being nearly as young as I'd prefer to be."

"Good to know you're at least thinking about it. I still say the internet is your best bet."

"Tell you what, Daniel. You give yourself some time to heal and you can show me how it works," offered Vlad, doing his best to sound completely uninterested.

The teen muttered something that may or may not have contained swear and a mention of the boy's mother.

"What was that?" Vlad inquired.

"I said ‘fine’." Daniel finally pulled away to glare at him, though the look was short-lived as the half-dried blood was noticed. "Oops."

"Yes, well, it happens. How about I walk you home and when you get there, you convince your mother to set it rather than to disfigure me further?" He gently touched the angry tissues. If he could avoid a trip to the hospital, he would, even if it meant risking Maddie's wrath.

*

They flew most of the way back to the Fenton house instead of walking, but why would you walk when you're half ghost? The little bit of walking that they did have to do, Vlad did with a noticeable limp. While his business suit did not have claw marks in it, his hip still very much did.

"Sorry," Daniel whispered for the third time as he made it up the stairs.

"Would you quit apologizing!" Vlad hissed. "We both know I'll heal quickly. It's just the nose I need help with."

Daniel barely got through the door before Maddie was on the boy.

"Where have you been? You missed dinner and weren't answering your phone. I was just getting ready to call Sam and Tucker to see if you were with them," demanded Maddie with all the concern one would expect.

"I… broke my phone. Sam broke up with me and I needed to get away for a while," the teen admitted, his eyes downcast.

"Oh, sweety…"

Vlad cleared his throat. "I don't mean to be rude, but his phone isn't all he broke. I may have happened upon him at a bad time and caught some misplaced aggression." He pointed to his puffy and bloodied face.

Maddie glanced between her son and him, clearly trying to figure out if Daniel had been defending her honor again. Vlad hadn't tried anything so foolish in quite a while, but he didn't blame her for being suspicious.

"I could use some help making sure it heals correctly."

She sighed. "I suppose we owe you that. Danny, you get to help."

The boy pulled a face, not at all enthused with that idea.

"Because I broke it?"

"Well, that too, but it's just a useful life skill really." Maddie sounded all too chipper about the prospect as she led the way down to the lab.

Vlad did his best to follow along without a limp, having briefly forgotten that Maddie wasn't upset enough to just set his nose and send him on his way.

"Vladdie! We weren't expecting to see you tonight, V-man!" greeted Jack all too enthusiastically. The happy smile on the big idiot's face didn't last long though. "What happened to you?"

"Your heartbroken son," he said flatly. One plus to having blood still on his face was that Jack hadn't snatched him up into a bear hug.

There was a short conversation between the three Fentons, catching one another up presumably, as Vlad washed off his face gently and then settled on a metal stool. It had been a long time since he’d last had to deal with a broken nose, not since college, but if he remembered correctly, setting it would hurt far worse than the headbutt that had broken it. Maddie approached with a pair of narrow wooden sticks.

*

He had handled it with grace and strength and a minimal amount of screaming. Local anesthetic just didn’t work the way it used to before his accident. His nose was packed and bandaged and Maddie seemed happy with the results on her x-ray machine. Vlad slid off the stool and attempted to leave for the night.

“Hey, Vladdie, you’re bleeding,” Jack said, noticing the small smear he had left on the seat.

For the first time in his life, Vlad wished that he could borrow a certain excuse from Daniel, but he did not have the anatomy for that excuse and they all knew it.

“There may have been a ghost that I also encountered on my walk tonight,” he admitted carefully. “Daniel drove it off before it could do much damage.”

The teen flinched at the reminder.

“Danny, you know better than to go ghost hunting without the proper equipment,” admonished Maddie.

“I wasn’t out hunting, remember?”

“Back on the stool, Vlad. We might as well patch all your injuries up.”

“I’m sorry, my dear Maddie, you’ve long since missed the chance to get into my pants,” he said smoothly and tried to hurry up the stairs.

Jack picked him up by the scruff of his suit, dangling him in the air, and walked him back over to the seat. “No can do, V-man. Pants off.”

“Oh, crumb cake!”

“And on that note, I am out of here!” announced Daniel as he fled the lab.


End file.
